The Fairfax Times has a little piece on foreclosures in Fairfax County. And it's nice to see some extra sympathy for the renters:
"Perhaps most vulnerable are unsuspecting tenants facing eviction because their landlord did not pay the mortgage, yet collected rent and often ran off with the security deposit.From the article:
'These tenants are people playing by the rules,' [Fairfax City Attorney Kevin R.] Hildebeidel said. 'They're paying their rent. They're not defaulting at all.
'I have a great deal of sympathy for them. They're the people that need some help,' he said. 'Those are the people, who in my opinion, that Congress and politicians ought to be focused on.'"
Foreclosures in Fairfax County
2005: 198
2006: 593
2007: 4,527
-----------------------
January 2007: 74
January 2008: 1,330
Also be sure to note the map of Fairfax County that tells the story of 2008 assessments.
12 comments:
74 to 1330 for January?!?
So the question is will Fairfax country match 2007 in 1Q2008, or will it take four months? That's just scary...
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Neil
Hello again Neil - sorry to have to chase you around like this, but I know you just posted so I assume you are still around. I asked a question of you at the end of the last thread. If you can spare 2 seconds of your time and answer it, I think alot of us here in DC would appreciate it. THANKS!
Back on topic - the piece in the times noted:
"In Fairfax County, foreclosures are especially concentrated in Springfield, Herndon and Centreville. Some of the homes in those areas represent recent purchases by landlords who converted the residences into illegal boarding houses, often filled with illegal immigrants."
This is why I think some areas around here will be affected much more than others. Legal or illegal aside, it looks like many of the buyers/renters in PWC (and based on this fairfax) were here to cater specifically to the housing & construction business.
Those jobs are now gone and so are their incomes. Many had no real ties to the area other than it was a place to get a job - and arent coming back anytime soon. Thus, all other things being equal, it seems like think these areas will be among those that suffer the worst.
Hi everyone, I am back in town after being out of the country for a bit.
From reading the posts it seems little has changed here, though I can't really say I expected anything to. The problem at this point is not a lack of sufficient data.
Here is a big thanks to Harriet. This blog has become easily the best source of information on the Northern Virginia bubble.
Leroy said:
"From reading the posts it seems little has changed here"
Very true. So what did you learn from your travels Leroy?
Jeez. I hope this doesn't mean we are looking at 12,000 plus forclosures for the year!
Harriet -
That map is awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Of course, I am dying for similar coverage of PWC. I can only begin to imagine...
The article describes my great fear of renting again: we would get settled in, make our huge security deposit, and get an eviction notice on our door right when the new baby is due or something. Heaven forbid.
THANK YOU HARRIET for this superb blog!
FWIW My assessment went up this year. Stinkers. I looked and we took a big hit in the 2005 assessments. It's been going up ever since (22033 ZIP)
"Very true. So what did you learn from your travels Leroy?"
Not much related to housing markets... I was too busy with work to spend much time poking around.
I couldn't help but notice that as usual the BBC is doing a better job of covering the US housing bubble than the US media seems to be able to do. I didn't see any super in depth stories but they had all the basic facts right and didn't waste a lot of time getting them out there.
"I couldn't help but notice that as usual the BBC is doing a better job of covering the US housing bubble than the US media seems to be able to do."
I couldnt agree more. Whenever I am overseas, (especially in non-english speaking countires), I turn to BBC. The difference between their coverage and US coverage of the same event is like night and day.
Tabitha said...
“Of course, I am dying for similar coverage of PWC. I can only begin to imagine...
The article describes my great fear of renting again: we would get settled in, make our huge security deposit, and get an eviction notice on our door right when the new baby is due or something. Heaven forbid.”
Let me start by saying first off, Banks do not want real estate on the books.
However, which would they rather have…..a renter and some cash flow or, one more house out of thousands with no cash flow? We just might start seeing some situations in which the bank would rather keep the renter, at least until the lease is up or fewer homes are on the market. Maybe they could employ out of work realtors as local property managers?
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